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The Global Jewish News SourceFri, 09 Dec 2016 16:32:04 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.6.1British trade union approves West Bank boycotthttp://www.jta.org/2010/09/15/news-opinion/world/british-trade-union-approves-west-bank-boycott
http://www.jta.org/2010/09/15/news-opinion/world/british-trade-union-approves-west-bank-boycott#respondWed, 15 Sep 2010 20:41:00 +0000http://jta-live.alley.ws/2010/09/15/default/british-trade-union-approves-west-bank-boycottBritain’s national trade union again voted to support a boycott of goods made in West Bank settlements and of companies profiting from the area.]]>LONDON (JTA) — Britain’s national trade union again voted to support a boycott of goods made in West Bank settlements and of companies profiting from the area.

Delegates to the Trade Unions Congress’ annual conference voted unanimously Tuesday in support of the boycott resolution.

The union also condemned the Histadrut, Israel’s national trade union, for supporting the Gaza blockade and Israel’s action to stop the aid flotilla in May. It reiterated its support and continued cooperation with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Palestinian trade unions.

In practice, the resolution, which is similar to a measure adopted last year, does not have much of an effect beyond rhetoric.

Last year the main supermarket chains responded to the call for boycott by saying that they would follow the wishes of their customers, and as long as customers continued to buy products manufactured in the West Bank they would continue to import them.

Calls made last year for demonstrations outside supermarkets that sell products made in the settlements hardly materialized.

Israel’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, Ron Prossor, condemned the resolution.

In response to the vote, Prossor said, “This appalling decision speaks volumes about the caliber of those who voted for it. Whilst many around the world are helping to create an environment for peace, some in the TUC prefer to create a noisy distraction. These people contrast sharply with those responsible leaders, who at that very same time were offering hope to the people of the Middle East. This resolution, in comparison, is hopeless, in both senses of the word.”

Delegates to the conference, which ends Thursday, took time away from debating ways to deal with the economic crisis to debate the issue of the Middle East.

In a statement issued late Sunday night by his spokesman, Peres backtracked on quotes attributed to him in an interview with the Jewish news website Tablet.

“President Peres never accused the British people of anti-Semitism," the statement said, according to the Telegraph of London " The president does not believe that British governments are motivated by anti-Semitism, nor were they in the past."

Peres had caused a storm in England after accusing the British establishment of being "deeply pro-Arab" and "anti-Israeli."

"In England there has always been something deeply pro-Arab, of course, not among all Englishmen, and anti-Israeli, in the establishment," he told Tablet in a Q&A conducted by the Israeli historian Benny Morris.

Peres, who in 2008 received an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II, said the British “abstained in the [pro-Zionist] 1947 U.N. partition resolution … They maintained an arms embargo against us in the 1950s … They had a defense treaty with Jordan, they always worked against us."

The Israeli president went on to say that the British “think the Palestinians are the underdog … "Even though this is irrational.”

On British anti-Semitism, Peres, 86, noted that "There is in England a saying that an anti-Semite is someone who hates the Jews more than is necessary."

Peres accused British lawmakers of pandering to Muslim voters in order to retain their seats in Parliament.

"There are several million Muslim voters, and for many members of Parliament, that’s the difference between getting elected and not getting elected," he said.

British Prime Minister David Cameron last week described Gaza as a "prison camp" during a visit to Turkey.

Peres’ comments generated angry reactions from Jewish and non-Jewish members of Parliament.

Conservative lawmaker James Clappison, vice chairman of Conservative Friends of Israel, said Peres "got it wrong."

"There are pro- and anti-Israel views in all European countries," Clappison said in an interview that appeared Sunday in the Telegraph of London. "Things are certainly no worse, as far as Israel is concerned, in this country than other European countries."

Rabbi Jonathan Romain of the Maidenhead synagogue also told the newspaper, "It is a sweeping statement that is far too one-sided," adding that "The tolerance and pluralism here make Britain one of the best countries in the world in which to live."

However, Jacob Vince, the director of Christian Friends of Israel, described Peres’ remarks as "measured and moderate." He added that there was anti-Semitism in Britain, although many people had a positive view of Israel but were unwilling to express it publicly.

Vince said it was "difficult to see how many MPs would not be influenced by the number of Muslim voters in their constituencies."

The past decade has seen a significant rise in anti-Semitic incidents in Britain, according to data collected by the Community Security Trust, which was established in 1984 to monitor such incidents. In 2009 there were 924 anti-Semitic incidents — 55 percent higher than the record set in 2006.

The incidents include only verifiable reports of physical assaults, verbal abuse and racist graffiti.

Meanwhile, a British Foreign Office spokesman said that Britain’s ambassador to Beirut was not reflecting the British government’s view of Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah when she praised the cleric.

Octavia Nasr, CNN’s senior Middle East editor, was forced to leave her position Wednesday after calling Fadlallah a "giant" in a Twitter post following his death last weekend.

CNN and Nasr called the tweet an "error in judgment" on Tuesday, but that did not end the matter. An internal CNN memo leaked to the media Wednesday said Nasr’s "credibility in her position as senior editor for Middle Eastern affairs has been compromised going forward.”

Jewish groups had protested the tweet, noting Fadlallah’s role in founding the terrorist group, in praising deadly terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians and in denying the Holocaust. However, at least one group, the Anti-Defamation League, said it was satisfied with the statements of regret Tuesday from Nasr and CNN, and did not call for her firing.

Nasr explained in a blog post Tuesday that she did not respect Fadlallah’s record, noting that as a Lebanese Christian, she had lost relatives to Hezbollah attacks while he was a leader of the organization in the 1980s.

She added that he had pressed for women’s rights and had slammed Hezbollah’s closeness to Iran in recent years, a position that led the movement to marginalize the cleric.

"I used the words ‘respect’ and ‘sad’ because to me, as a Middle Eastern woman, Fadlallah took a contrarian and pioneering stand among Shia clerics on woman’s rights," Nasr wrote. "He called for the abolition of the tribal system of ‘honor killing.’ He called the practice primitive and non-productive. He warned Muslim men that abuse of women was against Islam."

The ambassador, Frances Guy, in her blog wrote about the “passing of a decent man,” praising Fadlallah. However the Foreign Office pointed also to his support of attacks on Israel.

In the blog, which is part of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s website, Guy wrote Wednesday that after meeting Fadlallah, “you would leave his presence feeling a better person.” Guy went on to write that “The world needs more men like him willing to reach out across faiths, acknowledging the reality of the modern world and daring to confront old constraints.”

However, the Foreign Office spokesman issued a statement saying that Guy "expressed a personal view on Sheik Sayyed Fadlallah, describing the man as she knew him. We welcomed his progressive views on women’s rights and interfaith dialogue. But also had profound disagreements — especially over his statements advocating attacks on Israel."

]]>http://www.jta.org/2010/07/08/news-opinion/united-states/cnn-editor-fired-after-hezbollah-tweet/feed0Crucifixion exhibit at Jewish museum raising hackleshttp://www.jta.org/2010/06/30/news-opinion/world/crucifixion-exhibit-at-jewish-museum-raising-hackles
http://www.jta.org/2010/06/30/news-opinion/world/crucifixion-exhibit-at-jewish-museum-raising-hackles#respondWed, 30 Jun 2010 22:35:00 +0000http://jta-live.alley.ws/2010/06/30/default/crucifixion-exhibit-at-jewish-museum-raising-hacklesAn exhibit of crucifixion paintings at The London Jewish Museum of Art has stirred a substantial number of complaints.]]>LONDON (JTA) — An exhibit of crucifixion paintings at The London Jewish Museum of Art has stirred a substantial number of complaints.

More than 300 people attended last week’s opening of the exhibit, titled "The Cross Purposes — Shock and Contemplation in Images of the Crucifixion," which traces artistic representation of the crucifixion from Christian interpretations to modern-day images. The exhibit runs through Sept. 10 at the Ben Uri Gallery.

Critics, including Benjamin Perl, a patron of the Ben Uri Gallery, did not agree with the choice of subject matter.

"From all the subjects from our heritage, why choose this?" Perl told the London Standard. "They are trying to play to the non-Jews. Why don’t they call it a Christian museum?"

He added, “This would never happen in New York or Jerusalem.”

David Glasses, co-chairman of the gallery, defended the exhibition and told the Jewish Chronicle that the theme was handled sensitively and intelligently.

"Many people will ask why we are addressing this sensitive subject," Glasses said. "Religious iconography of whatever faith, within an artistic context, is a core part of this museum’s repertoire."

In an online vote on the Jewish Chronicle website, the exhibit received more support than opposition.

Protesters lunged at Talya Lador-Fresher following her lecture Wednesday at the University of Manchester. The envoy, who was not hurt, told Britain’s Jewish Chronicle that she feared she would be physically assaulted by the protesters.

Lador-Fresher was removed from the area by a security vehicle, which she entered from the back entrance of the lecture hall. The demonstrators attacked the car, some holding Palestinian flags up to the windows and others climbing on the hood and trying to smash the windshield, according to reports.

“I don’t think they wanted to kill me, but I genuinely believed they wanted to physically hurt me," she said. "If I had not had the police and security team, I would have been beaten up.”

Lador-Fresher told the Jewish Chronicle that “No foreign diplomat should have to go through what I went through.”

She had been scheduled to give the lecture in February, but it was postponed following reports of planned demonstrations and the inability of university authorities to properly protect her. At that time, more than 300 protesters from the Action Palestine student society scuffled with Jewish students and police.

The lecture was scheduled for Wednesday, when police and university authorities said they were prepared to deal with the demonstrators, including a complete lockdown of the building, a high-level security presence, ID checks at the door and ticket-only arrangements.

]]>http://www.jta.org/2010/04/29/news-opinion/world/protesters-menace-israeli-diplomat-in-britain/feed0Britain ready to take in Yemeni Jewshttp://www.jta.org/2010/04/14/news-opinion/world/britain-ready-to-take-in-yemeni-jews
http://www.jta.org/2010/04/14/news-opinion/world/britain-ready-to-take-in-yemeni-jews#respondWed, 14 Apr 2010 21:58:00 +0000http://jta-live.alley.ws/2010/04/14/default/britain-ready-to-take-in-yemeni-jewsBritain is nearing an agreement to take in persecuted Jews from Yemen who have relatives in the country.]]>LONDON (JTA) — Britain is nearing an agreement to take in persecuted Jews from Yemen who have relatives in the country.

Britain’s Foreign Office is talking with Yemen authorities about the transfer of some Jews who have been attacked amid rising anti-Jewish sentiment in northern Yemen and the growing al-Qaida-inspired militancy, according to the Independent newspaper.

The report said that 20 to 30 families living in the northern town of Raida have relatives living in Britain. They are seeking sanctuary because of rising hate attacks, murders and forced conversions by the hostile Shia al-Houthi tribe, which dominates Yemen’s mountainous border with Saudi Arabia.

Last year the U.S. State Department arranged the evacuation of more than 100 Yemeni Jews who have relatives in the United States.

Britain previously has refused to grant visas to Jews from Yemen, but according to the nearly completed agreement, Raida Jews with British connections will be invited to apply for a three-month visitor visa to see their UK relatives. Once they are out of Yemen, the Raida Jews will be able to claim refugee status, although each application will be considered on an individual basis, unlike in the United States, where all Yemeni Jews are guaranteed asylum.

Spiriting the families out of the country on a visitor visa frees the Yemeni authorities from embarrassment and allows them to avoid claims that they can no longer protect the country’s Jewish population, according to the Independent.

]]>http://www.jta.org/2010/04/14/news-opinion/world/britain-ready-to-take-in-yemeni-jews/feed0Britain bans Israel travel adhttp://www.jta.org/2010/04/14/news-opinion/world/britain-bans-israel-travel-ad
http://www.jta.org/2010/04/14/news-opinion/world/britain-bans-israel-travel-ad#respondWed, 14 Apr 2010 21:05:00 +0000http://jta-live.alley.ws/2010/04/14/default/britain-bans-israel-travel-adAn advertisement for travel to Israel was banned in Britain as misleading for showing sites that included the Western Wall.]]>LONDON (JTA) — An advertisement for travel to Israel was banned in Britain as misleading for showing sites that included the Western Wall.

The ad, part of an Israeli Government Tourist Office campaign, said that a tourist could “travel the entire length of Israel in six hours,” and showed pictures of attractions such as the Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock.

The British Advertising Standards Authority received a complaint claiming that the advertising, which appeared in publications and on posters, was misleading since the Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock are located in eastern Jerusalem and are "part of the occupied territories."

The authority claimed that readers of the ad were likely to assume that all the places featured in the ad were within the State of Israel.

"The status of the occupied territory of the West Bank [is] the subject of much international dispute, and because we considered that the ad implied that the part of East Jerusalem featured in the image was part of the state of Israel, we concluded that the ad was likely to mislead," the Advertising Standards Authority said.

The authority banned the ad, telling the Israeli Government Tourist Office not to imply that places in the occupied territories were part of the State of Israel.

The Tourism Ministry responded that the present legal status of Jerusalem was irrelevant unless there was an unnecessary attempt to "interpret the straightforward message of the ad in a manner that went beyond what consumers were likely to understand from the ad."

Another tourism ad was banned last year following letters of complaint about a map in the ad that included the West Bank, the Golan Heights and the Gaza Strip as part of Israel.

Awad said she cancelled the appearance with Jewish Israeli singer Achinoam Nini in the concert sponsored by the Zionist Federation due to "the complexity of this date for me." Awad represented Israel at the last Eurovision Song Contest with Nini, who is known as Noa. The duo performs internationally to packed audiences, promoting a unique message of peace and co-existence.

The Zionist Federation, which has organized annual Israel Independence Day events in Britain for many years, invited the pair to headline the show and celebrate the diversity of Israel’s population, of whom almost 20 percent are Arabs.

But on Friday the Zionist Federation announced that Awad had to cancel her London concert, and that Noa will perform on her own.

Some reports said Awad canceled after being threatened. Awad lives in Tel Aviv, and her family live in a small Arab village in the north of Israel; both now have round the clock security, according to reports,

Awad’s manager, Ofer Pesenzon, said: "Mira and Noa’s message is about finding a peaceful way forward. It is tragic that when both sides try to come together by any means possible to build a better future for Israel and its citizens, there are those prepared to use violence and intimidation to destroy it."

The Zionist Federation’s Executive Director Alan Aziz said: "Our concert is a celebration of independence but it’s also about building understanding. Mira wanted to be the Arab-Israeli voice promoting a peaceful way forward, and the threats to her life expose the real truth behind the conflict – that everyone is hostage to extremism, and it is a dangerous and growing phenomenon that denies Israel’s right to exist, and the world’s right to democracy."

Both used anti-Semitic stereotypes in their statements, reportedly made last week, which drew criticism from the body that monitors anti-Semitism in Britain.

Addressing a meeting at the House of Commons of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Friends of Al Aksa, Labor Party lawmaker Martin Linton, who chairs the parliamentary group Labor Friends of Palestine, said that “There are long tentacles of Israel in this country who are funding election campaigns and putting money into the British political system for their own ends,” the Jewish Chronicle reported on March 25.

However, Linton told the Daily Telegraph on Tuesday that he did not recognize the “tentacles” comment, but admitted he had said that Israelis with dual nationalities were funding British parties.

Another Labor lawmaker, Sir Gerald Kaufman, who is Jewish, claimed that "right-wing Jewish millionaires own” part of the Conservative Party.

Mark Gardner, spokesman for the Community Security Trust, the organization that monitors anti-Semitism in Britain, said that “Anybody who understands anti-Semitism will recognize just how ugly and objectionable these quotes are, with their imagery of Jewish control and money power. Ask the average voter who had made these comments, and they would most likely answer that it was the BNP [the far-right British National Party], not a pair of Labor lawmakers.”

]]>http://www.jta.org/2010/04/01/news-opinion/world/british-lawmakers-israel-buying-political-influence/feed0Brown vows to change universal jurisdiction lawhttp://www.jta.org/2010/03/05/news-opinion/world/brown-vows-to-change-universal-jurisdiction-law
http://www.jta.org/2010/03/05/news-opinion/world/brown-vows-to-change-universal-jurisdiction-law#respondFri, 05 Mar 2010 05:48:00 +0000http://jta-live.alley.ws/2010/03/05/default/brown-vows-to-change-universal-jurisdiction-lawBritish Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he will change legislation enabling Palestinian organizations to obtain arrest warrants against Israeli political leaders on suspicion of war crimes.]]>LONDON (JTA) — British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he will change legislation enabling Palestinian organizations to obtain arrest warrants against Israeli political leaders on suspicion of war crimes.

However, in practice, the legislation is likely to wait until after the general elections in the United Kingdom.

In Thursday’s Daily Telegraph, Brown wrote that Britain is committed to "universal jurisdiction" in serious cases of war crimes. But he added that Britain must make sure that individuals with political interests cannot acquire arrest warrants issued against foreign leaders in cases where there is not sufficient evidence.

In order to overcome this problem, Brown announced Thursday that his government is considering changing the law in such a way that will require the consent of the Public Prosecution Service prior to the issuance of such an arrest warrant.

Brown added that the government’s suggestion will be put before the Parliamentary Justice Committee. Justice Minister Jack Straw indicated that the committee will have to present its conclusion to the government within one month.

However, since the UK is in the midst of an election campaign, and the prime minister might announce the election date before the date the committee has to present its conclusion, it might be too late to enact the law before the election.

Israeli officials and military officers, unwilling to risk having an arrest warrant issued against them, have been avoiding the UK.

Britain wants to continue to be involved in the Middle East peace process, and the British government is aware that it would be marginalized if Israeli politicians refuse to visit Britain.

Israeli British Ambassador Ron Prosor welcomed Brown’s announcement.

“We particularly concur that ‘Britain cannot afford to have its standing in the world compromised for the sake of tolerating such gestures,’ " he said, quoting from Brown’s piece in the Telegraph.

The Conservative Party’s spokesman on Justice, Dominic Grieve, said: "This morning Gordon Brown wrote in the Daily Telegraph that ‘Britain cannot afford to have its standing in the world compromised’ by spurious and politicized war crimes prosecutions. This afternoon he kicked the whole issue into the long grass. The Conservatives would have supported him in resolving the problem, but he has chosen to duck it instead."